INSECTA MUNDI A Journal of World Insect Systematics 0083 The milliped families Spirostreptidae (Spirostreptida) and Paradoxosomatidae (Polydesmida) in the Middle East; first records of the Diplopoda from Saudi Arabia Rowland M. Shelley Research Laboratory North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences MSC #1626 Raleigh, NC 27699-1626, USA Date of Issue: July 24, 2009 CENTER FOR SYSTEMATIC ENTOMOLOGY, INC., Gainesville, FL Rowland M. Shelley The milliped families Spirostreptidae (Spirostreptida) and Paradoxosomatidae (Polydesmida) in the Middle East; first records of the Diplopoda from Saudi Arabia Insecta Mundi 0083: 1-6 Published in 2009 by Center for Systematic Entomology, Inc. P. O. Box 141874 Gainesville, FL 32614-1874 U. S. A. http://www.centerforsystematicentomology.org/ Insecta Mundi is a journal primarily devoted to insect systematics, but articles can be published on any non-marine arthropod taxon. 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Florida Center for Library Automation: http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/insectamundi University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Digital Commons: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/insectamundi/ Author instructions available on the Insecta Mundi page at: http://www.centerforsystematicentomology.org/insectamundi/ Printed Copy ISSN 0749-6737 On-Line ISSN 1942-1354 CD-ROM ISSN 1942-1362 0083: 1-6 2009 The milliped families Spirostreptidae (Spirostreptida) and Paradoxosomatidae (Polydesmida) in the Middle East; first records of the Diplopoda from Saudi Arabia Rowland M. Shelley Research Laboratory North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences MSC #1626 Raleigh, NC 27699-1626, USA [email protected] Abstract. The class Diplopoda, represented by the families Spirostreptidae (Spirostreptida) and Paradoxosomatidae (Polydesmida), is recorded from Saudi Arabia for the first time. Archispirostreptus transmarinus Hoffman, 1965 (Spirostreptidae) inhabits the Jabal Al-Hijaz Mountains in the southwest, and the Paradoxosomatidae, represented by an unidentifiable, indigenous female, occurs in a “wadi” in the center of the country. Other Middle Eastern familial records are documented, and occurrences in the Arabian Peninsula are mapped. Males, necessary to identify the paradoxosomatid, may be encountered if samplings are timed to coincide with seasonal rains. Introduction Species of the arthropod class Diplopoda are major detritivores in forest ecosystems throughout the Temperate and Tropical zones of the world. Some species can survive and even thrive in arid environ- ments, primarily by occurring in forested summits of desert mountains or in litter near water sources like transient springs and permanent oases. Rarely are millipeds found in sandy or gravely biotopes or in ones lacking shade, moisture, or plant litter. Because of the aridity and expanse across the desertine Arabian Peninsula, few milliped species and low taxonomic diversity are anticipated in Saudi Arabia. However, scattered oases, “wadis” or valleys, and the Jabal Al-Hijaz Mountains, which extend along the Red Sea for around 1,080 km (675 mi.) from Jeddah into southwestern Yemen, could provide habitat for indigenous millipeds in this environmentally harsh country. Apparently, however, no one has ever sampled there as to my knowledge no published Saudi records exist, either of native or introduced species. Until 2009, I had not seen a preserved Saudi milliped sample in a North American or European repository. While perusing holdings at the Florida State Collection of Arthropods (FSCA), Gainesville, USA, in March, I discovered three Saudi milliped samples, one with a female Paradoxosomatidae (order Polydesmida) and two with representatives of the Spirostreptidae (Spirostreptida). The paradoxosomatid was taken in a “wadi” northwest of Ar Riyad (= Riyadh), and while even the tribe is uncertain, it is an indigenous form and not a “tramp” species introduced by man. The spirostreptids, comprising five specimens with one adult male, occupy the Jabal Al-Hijaz Mountains in southwestern Saudi Arabia. Herein, I report these samples, which constitute the first milliped records from Saudi Arabia, and summarize familial represen- tations in the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East south of Turkey. The Spirostreptidae (sensu Hoffman 1980 and Shelley 2003) are absent from both Turkey and Iran; Turkish paradoxosomatids are reviewed by Jeekel (1968), Hoffman and Lohmander (1968), and Enghoff (2006), and Iranian representatives are listed by Enghoff and Moravvej (2005). I thank G. B. Edwards and C. Whitehill, for access to the FSCA collection and loan of the Saudi samples, and R. L. Hoffman, for access to material at the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH), Martinsville, USA. Dr. Hoffman provided a presubmission review of the manuscript, and he and C. A. W. Jeekel advised on identities. Sergei Golovatch also provided beneficial review commentary, and Jonathan Raine prepared the base maps. C. W. Mills III characterized the environments in which he collected the specimens. 1 2 • I NSECTA M UNDI 0083, July 2009 SHELLEY Spirostreptida: Spirostreptidae: Triaenostreptinae Archispirostreptus transmarinus Hoffman, 1965 Proposed by Hoffman (1965) for two males and a female from San’a (= Sanaa), Yemen, A. transmarinus is also known from Obal-Der el Oetsch and Sanaa-El Geraas (exact locations un- known) in this country (Attems 1914, Krabbe 1982). It is the second Yemeni spirostreptid, the other being A. arabs (Pocock, 1895), from an un- specified site in the Hadramawt (= Hadramaut) region. Archispirostreptus Silvestri, 1895, extends across Africa to Senegal in the west and Mozambique in the south, and traverses the Red Sea into the southwestern Arabian Peninsula (Hoffman 1965, 1980; Krabbe 1982; Jeekel 1985; Hamer 1998). The Saudi locality is in the Jabal Al-Hijaz Mountains of Asir Emirate, the coolest and wettest region of Saudi Arabia with the high- est mountains in the country, which is located some 360 km (225 mi) north-northwest of San’a and around 88 km (55 mi) north of the Yemeni border. The millipeds were discovered beneath stones in a dwarf Juniper/grassy habitat at the edge of a steep escarpment; the site was moist with condensate from fog sweeping up the escarpment face from the Red Sea Coast. The male conforms to Hoffman’s description, the only differences being a longer and Figure 1. Distributions of Archispirostreptus, more prominent lateral telocoxal lobe and a shorter Spirostreptidae, and Spirostreptida in the Arabian field of ramose telopodal spines. The specimens Peninsula and Middle East. Dots, A. syriacus, Stars, A. were too brittle and tightly coiled to be straight- transmarinus; Star in Dot, A. arabs. ened for measurements, but the following ring counts, which include the epiproct, were obtained: M - 65 rings, epiproct legless. F - 58 rings, epiproct + 4 rings legless. F - 59 rings, epiproct legless. F - 63 rings, epiproct legless. F - 64 rings, epiproct + 1 ring legless. Locality: Saudi Arabia, Asir Em., Khamis Mushayt, Jabal Al-Hijaz Mts., 2,050 m (6,724 ft), F, 20 February 1997, and M, 3F, 12 June 1997, C.W. Mills III. New Country Record for the Species, Genus, Family, Order, and Class. Figure 1 depicts occurrences of Archispirostreptus and the Spirostreptidae in the Arabian Peninsula and Middle East. A second species, for which A. syriacus (Saussure, 1859) is the oldest name, occurs some 1,984 km (1,240 mi) to the northwest in central and northern Israel and the West Bank (Hoffman 1965, 1980; Krabbe 1982; Jeekel 1985). Despite holding 68 years of taxonomic priority, Krabbe (1982) considered syriacus a junior synonym of A. tumuliporus judaicus (Attems, 1926), but following Bercovitz and Warburg (1985) and Tabacaru (1995), I recognize this much older name at the species level. Published literature reports of A. syriacus are cited below followed by a new one; here and in the Paradoxosomatini account, modern geopolitical